How I Saw Paris This Week #27

To new followers who have come from my Facebook Live videos – welcome and bienvenue! I’m thrilled to have you here. There’ll be another live walk this weekend – I’ll let you know once it’s scheduled.

If anyone missed Sunday’s video tour of Ile Saint Louis you can watch it here, followed by the Post-Tour Café Chat. Once I record Episode 03 I’ll probably start a YouTube channel so you can find these all in one place.

Ok onto this week’s set of Paris pics, because still images are always in style. :) If you’re new here, every week or so I do a recap of my little discoveries with captions for each. Sometimes it’s a historical tidbit, a food recommendation, or whatever’s on my mind. Hope it helps transport you a little bit!

When I posted this to Instagram, one of my favorite followers @shelly_sells_lemonade commented “This pic is everything”. That made me smile because I think the Covered Passages are pure magic. This one’s called the Verdeau (9th arr), which gets overlooked quite often. Those who take a tour of the passages with me get to walk through this beauty.Been holding onto this photo for a while now. I get a James Dean kind of vibe from this image, like the feeling that I need to hang out with this guy and find out what his story is.This is one of Hemingway’s haunts, Café de la Mairie. It overlooks Place Saint Sulpice which is a favorite square of mine. This is a popular local spot and it’s rare to find these seats empty, so I feel like I captured a moment here!The Saint Michel fountain still stops me in my tracks. It’s the last great “wall fountain” of Paris; after it was installed in 1860 most fountains were placed in the center of squares and roundabouts. This structure was later dedicated to victims of the French Resistance because a battle vs. the Nazis took place here. Where are the bullet holes left behind from that fight? A French Frye tour of the Latin Quarter will answer that. :)Debauve & Gallais is a chocolate shop that can’t be beat when it comes to history. Debauve was Marie Antoinette’s royal pharmacist who ended up making chocolates for her and the royal court. He managed to survive the Revolution and opened his first Paris address in 1800. This one is at 33 Rue Vivienne (2nd arr).Rue de l’Abreuvoir is perhaps my favorite street in this town. What a perfect manifestation of all that’s lovely about Montmartre. The translation of the name is Trough Street, because at the bottom water used to be collected as a pool where pack mules could drink and bathe.A florist along Rue Saint Honoré caught my eye several times this Xmas season. I guess when your Paris apartment is the size of a shoebox, these mini trees are about as much holiday joy as it can handle.Oh the Opéra Garnier – how I adore thee! I exhausted all of the traditional angles with my camera long ago, so now when I’m here I look for something a bit different. This is the staircase that leads up from the métro.These next two are a cheese shop I saw in Montmartre on my way to Au Lapin Agile. This is on Rue Caulaincourt I believe. Love those festive sprigs! (That should be the name of a holiday gospel choir – “The Festive Sprigs”)

La Bossue is a favorite coffee spot of mine in Montmartre. I’m actually there right now as I finish this blog post. They have some of the most gorgeous treats of any café and remarkably it’s all made in-house. Gotta respect that in this day and age. You’ll find it at 9 Rue Joseph de Maistre. My walking tour of this area passes conveniently in front of this location, and I always secretly hope my clients ask to stop for some java to take away. :)Rue de la Paix looking festive after hours.A moody look at the Tuileries Gardens. The Palace of the Tuileries once stood here, and during the French Revolution the people stormed it. Soldiers of the Swiss Guard, meant to protect the royal family inside, were slaughtered by the bloodthirsty mob. Napoléon witnessed the event and later said that in all his years on the battlefields of Europe and beyond, he’d never seen carnage equal to that of the Tuileries Gardens on that day. Now we admire its statues and little kids play with sailboats in the basin. Times have changed!Passage Jouffroy is another Covered Passage along my tour of these old shopping arcades. This bizarre decoration adorns a shop called Philippe Ferrandis, specializing in walking canes and parasols. Some real masterpieces inside!Dammann Frères is a frequent stop of mine for loose leaf tea. There are many locations, and this one is on Rue Victoria (1st arr). I like that most of their teas are there for you to smell and browse. Major aromatherapy in this place.

Thanks for having a look, hope you enjoyed it! For more photos you can check out the previous photo post. Stay tuned next week for another recap of whatever I may find in my wanderings.

To join my next live video tour of Paris, keep an eye on my Facebook page. I’ll soon be advertising the date and time of the next one, and I hope you can join along! If not the replay will be available as always.

And if you do all that and decide you can still tolerate my voice, pop over to The Earful Tower podcast where you’ll here me sharing lots of Paris history and recommendations. :)

Marvelous photographs, live walking tours not to be missed, secrets of easily recognizable buildings, magical moments walking through an old Paris I already love and yet am newly discovering – ALL on this Facebook page! Corey is so enthusiastic about the secrets hiding in every street of this city that I can’t start out my day without turning to his page! It is a delight from start to finish!

I don’t know how you manage to constantly outdo yourself … but you do! I’m delighted to be struggling to keep up with all of your photos, podcasts and posts — though I’m lucky to attest that a personal tour with you is still the best way to see Paris. Thank you for so generously sharing your city with us, Corey.

Thank you Lady H! Yes I’m way too ambitious these days, I barely recognize myself. :) I of course think about our Paris walks often and it goes without saying I’ll be ready for another when you come back over! Hope everything’s going well and you guys are healthy.

Thanks that’s very sweet. The thought has crossed my mind, and boy would I love to see my book sitting on store shelves. I’m not entirely convinced that enough people buy actual books these days…on the other hand if a publisher approached me I probably wouldn’t say no. :) At any rate I gladly accept your compliment and I’m thrilled to have you following along with these discoveries! All the best to you.

Your blog is now my favorite blog on Paris. You make it a personal experience with the detailed videos! I visited Paris solo in May 2014 for the first time. I planned my itinerary myself, and mostly did museums and bus tours. Would love to visit again and do more in-depth exploring!

Thanks so much Annie! Paris is absolutely a city that warrants multiple visits. After 8 years I still feel like I’m digging down to the soul of it. I’m so glad to have you as a viewer of my videos; the response has been staggering and I’m so happy to connect with other people who “get” Paris. :) All the best to you and I’ll do my best to keep the content coming.

Again your photos are amazing. I shared this post with my 2 sisters and the one that got left behind on our last tour has said she wants to join us in 2020 and do a couple of tours with you. She watched your tour as well. I look at my photos and wonder where the hell I have taken them lol

Thanks so much! Sorry I’m just now getting to this comment. I’m a victim of my own success with these latest FB videos. A good problem to have, but it slows down my response time! Would love to see you all in the future for some walks. :)

Loved Paris! Thanks for transporting me back there. Really like this idea of captioning all your photos, it’s a very entertaining way of telling dozens of stories – thanks for the creative inspiration too! I’ll be following along from now on 😊

Thanks Zac, yeah I agree that instead of just posting images the captions help me add a bit more value, without having to write long essays about Paris each week. :) Which I’d love to do but have very little time for. Thanks for following and I’ll definitely put up another set of photos in the coming days.

Hi. I just wanted to let you know that I nominated you for the Sunshine Blogger Award. Your stories and pictures on your blog have touched me, and I wanted you to know that your writings make me smile!

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Who is the French Frye?

Corey Frye was living in NYC when in 2006 a serendipitous encounter on a subway platform introduced him to a random French tourist. She had a cute accent and he could play the guitar, so things worked out and after many long Skype chats and even longer transatlantic flights they married and moved to Paris. As soon as he touched down, Corey fell under the city’s spell and has dedicated his time to exploring and unlocking its secrets ever since. He is now a highly sought-after tour guide as well as an editor and writer about all things Paris.